ROBERTSON. 281 



it is also striking ; the things described are presented 

 in the clearest light, and with the most vivid, natural, 

 and unambitious colouring, without exaggeration, ap- 

 parently without effort ; like the figures of Raphael, 

 which, for this reason, never captivate us so much on the 

 first view as after we have repeatedly gazed upon them 

 with still increasing wonder. The even flow of the story, 

 the last perfection and the most difficult which the nar- 

 rative art attains, is likewise complete. If not overlaid 

 with ornament, nor disfigured by declamation, nor 

 studded with points and other feats of speech, so neither 

 is it broken by abrupt transitions and unseemly pauses, 

 but holds its clear, simple, majestic course unin- 

 terrupted and untroubled. The story of Livy does 

 not more differ from that of Tacitus in all these essen- 

 tials than the simple but striking narration of the 

 Scotch historian from the tinsel, the epigram, the 

 word-catching of Gibbon. 



For examples to illustrate the high merits of this 

 narrative, we need not have recourse to a curious selec- 

 tion of remarkable scenes or events, because the texture 

 of the ' History ' in the ordinary portions of its fabric 

 where the mere common annals are related, would be 

 sufficient. There may, however, be no harm in not- 

 ing the singular effect of the story when Rizzio's 

 murder is related, or Gowrie's conspiracy, or Mary's 

 execution. The artistlike selection of particulars is to 

 be marked in all these cases ; as in the first, Ruthven's 

 figure clad in armour, and ghastly pale from his late 

 illness ; in the second, the trembling of the mysterious 

 armed man with a dagger near him, and a sword in 

 the small study whither the Earl had led the King, 



